The Woggle

The newsletter of the 3rd Hayling Scout Group
January 2009

GSL's Update

Whoops!
Although I had created "The Woggle" for December 2008 and sent the link to everyone, I forgot to make this visible on our website. Anyone linking to the newsletter would have only seen the November edition.

You can still access the December report including the results of our 100 Club Draw by selecting the "Information Archive" section of the website and then "Previous Woggles".

2008 Ends with more Top Awards
In the last week of term 5 Cubs from Saturn Pack were presented with their Chief Scout's Silver Award by Ian Stott the District Commissioner for Havant.

James Notley, Sam Farimond, William Kenny, Ben Boltwood and Matthew King can all be seen proudly holding their Awards.

Just 2 days later it was the turn of Cameron Maccallum, Edward Mill and Georgina Mill of Jupiter Pack to receive their Silver Awards from District Cub Scout Leader Mandy Hawke, on behalf of Ian Stott.

Explorer Belt and Platinum Awards
Abi Peett has become the first member of Hayling Scouts to gain the Explorer Belt. To complete this award Abi spent 10 days in Poland completing a 100 mile expedition and completing 10 demanding challenges. Abi was teamed up with Explorers Jack from Emsworth and Jake from Purbrook and their challenges required them to find out more about Polish culture, architecture, food, family life and also included a one day community service element. The last part of the Explorer Belt is to complete a presentation on their expedition. The award was presented by Adam Jollens the Assistant County Commissioner for Hampshire.

During the same evening Chief Scout's Platinum Awards were presented to Liam Holden, Kathryn Lincoln and Zack Allgood. The presentations were made by Tim Pike, the District Explorer Commissioner for Havant.
The photograph shows Liam, Tim, Kathryn, Zack, Adam and Abi.

Irene Day
Shortly before Christmas we were very saddened to hear of the passing of Irene Day. Irene had been a tremendous supporter of Hayling Scouts over many years and made a significant contribution to our success. Phil Blosse prepared and read an appreciation of Irene at her funeral which captured exactly the generosity of Irene to Hayling Scouts and other organisations. You can link to this appreciation from the home page of our website.

100 Club 2009
We will be running our 100 Club again in 2009, but have decided to align the Club with the financial year to simplify the accounting. Therefore early in the New Year we will be sending out details and inviting everyone to join.

Birthday Badge

Next year we will be providing every member of the Group with one of our special 80th Birthday Badges. These will be worn on our uniform throughout 2009.

Thanks to Graham Chapman, a member of our Group Development Team (GDT) for the design, to Phil Blosse for his help with the computer graphics and Nigel Kenny, also part of our GDT, for arranging the production.

Xmas Post ThanksThank you to all of you who delivered some of our Xmas Post. In total over 5500 cards were sorted and delivered with a profit of over £1000 towards the activities for our Family Birthday Camp in June.

Subscriptions
Don't forget your subs at £22 are now due. You will shortly receive a letter and information leaflet on subs and why we will be increasing these from April 2009.

Duck Race
The 1000 ducks are already in training for our Aquatic Marathon which takes place on Sunday 1st March. Full details will be sent with sponsorship forms in the middle of January. Please help us by finding 10 sponsors at £1 each.

Did you gain a top award with Hayling Scouts? Since 1992 we have recorded every top award presented to members of Hayling Scouts. We also have the names of some recipients from 1980, but it would be great if we could complete the history of top award holders in the Group. If you gained the top award as a Beaver, Cub, Scout, Explorer, Senior, Rover or Venture Scout then please let us know. You can complete a form on our website or call me on 02392462786 with details. If you know of anyone who achieved this please pass on the contact information.

You can see our current Roll of Honour on our website under badges and awards

15 Years for Jacko
Congratulations to Paul (Jacko) Jackson on receiving his 15 year Adult Leader Certificate recently. Thanks, Jacko, for all you are doing for the young people of Hayling.

Saturn Pack Move to Mengham Infant School
From January 5th 2009 Saturn Cub Pack moved their meeting place from the HQ to Mengham Infant School. The move is part of our Group Expansion Project and will enable a new Scout Troop to start in the HQ later this term.

So far, feedback from the Cubs and Leaders has been very positive. Perhaps this has something to do with the warmth and equipment!!!

Our thanks to Jan Randall and the team at the school for their support and being such great hosts.

2009 Census
I have just completed our annual Census for the Group which shows a further 11% growth in membership. We now have over 230 members who wear the Scout Uniform each week.

80th Birthday Family CampOur activities team have held two meetings and now have an outline of our programme for this special event. The site offers climbing, an assault course, archery plus plenty of space! The event will be a family camp, so not only will the Cubs, Scouts, Explorers and Leaders camp all weekend, but we invite all families to join us. This means that providing they have at least one parent camping, Beavers will also be able to take part in the whole weekend of fun. Dates for your Diary are Friday 26th-28th June 2009

Lego / Duplo BricksFor our Birthday Camp and for general use, we are looking to create a stock of Lego and Duplo bricks. In fact we are looking for as many as possible and will use a combination of donation and purchase to complete our collection.

If you come across any bricks for example at car boot sales, could I please ask you to purchase these and we will refund the money.